Nearly half of Americans say that President Barack Obama has caused further division among racial groups in the United States, according to a new
Rasmussen Reports poll released Friday.
Forty-seven percent of 1,000 likely voters surveyed on Monday and Tuesday said that Obama, the nation's first African-American president, has driven the races further apart.
That compared with only 20 percent who said that Obama, who was first elected in 2008, has brought the races closer together. In addition, 27 percent said the president's words and actions have had no major impact either way.
The Rasmussen survey has a margin of error of 3 percent.
In other findings, 44 percent of black voters feel Obama has brought America together, versus only 16 percent of whites.
And 54 percent of white voters believe Obama has driven the races further apart, compared with only 21 percent of African Americans.
The results are similar to a Bloomberg Politics poll last year that showed 53 percent believe race relations have worsened under Obama, 36 percent think they are unchanged, and only 9 percent believe they have improved.
The Rasmussen survey confirms what the president's critics have said about his poor record on race relations.
"President Obama, when he was elected, he could have been a unifying figure. He could have chosen to be a leader on race relations and bring us together,"
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said in a speech in April. And he hasn't done that, he's made decisions that I think have inflamed racial tensions that have divided us rather than bringing us together," Cruz said.
Appearing on Fox New last year, actor, commentator and speech writer Ben Stein accused Obama of selling lies to black voters.
"What the White House is trying to do is racialize all politics and their especially trying to tell the Africa-American voter that the GOP is against letting them have a chance at a good life in this economy, and that’s just a complete lie," Stein said.
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